How To Optimize Product Listings In 2018

Optimizing your Amazon product listings is critical to business success. Amazon optimization ensures that your product listing appears in search results, increasing visibility to potential customers. This optimization also helps attract the most relevant searchers, which can increase your click-through and conversion rates.

Listing optimization brings the right searchers and prospects to your storefront.

Moreover, it improves the customer shopping experience once a searcher has clicked on your listing. With an attractive, optimized listing, you create a shoppable storefront that is more likely to engage customers and convert sales.

In this guide, we’ll take you through the top factors you need to optimize your product listings as a private label seller. Keep in mind that if you share your product listings with other sellers, you may not have as much control over all the copy.

As we take you through each step of optimization, we’ll use one of our Home Revolution listings as an example. This will demonstrate how we use optimization to get our brand seen and our products sold. You can find this product listing here.

1. Keywords

The most important aspect of optimization is keywords. Keywords are those words are phrases that consumers use to find your product in Amazon’s search bar.

If someone types “red toy car” into Amazon, Amazon will curate a list of products that are optimized for the key-phrase “red toy car.”

Keyword selection is important because your listing will only show up in those search results where you have optimized similar keywords. If you are not optimized for “red toy car,” you won’t appear in those search results.

We like to find appropriate keywords with two free tools: Google Keyword Planner and Keywordtool.io. You can also do keyword research by searching for your product in Amazon’s search bar and taking note of the auto-suggestions. For example, if you start typing “red toy car” into Amazon, it may have auto-suggestions like “toy kids car” or “ride-on kids cars.” If these common searches are relevant to your product, you’ll likely want to optimize for them in your listings.

There are two types of keyword optimization locations: hidden and primary.

Hidden keywords are in the backend, like “sales terms.” These aren’t visible to customers, but they’re critical to improving your optimization.

For example, in the backend of the Home Revolution HEPA filter, we include keywords like “vacuum,” “vacuum filter,” and “replacement filter”—though we don’t focus on these phrases in the front end as much. This allows us to appear in “vacuum filter” searches, while our listing focuses more on the specifics of the product.

Primary keywords are in the visible frontend of listings. You should include keywords in your product title, bullet points, product description, and main image.

Keyword don’ts:

Don’t keyword stuff. (Amazon will think this is spam and customers won’t be able to understand your content.)

Don’t repeat the same keyword more than once.

Don’t use variations of the same keyword.

Don’t use punctuation.

Don’t use temporary sales terms, like “sale” or “discount.”

Don’t use competitors’ names or products.

2. Headline

The typical formula for optimization of a headline is as follows:

Brand + Model number + Model name + Product type/color

Headlines hold the most amount of weight in Amazon’s algorithm. Thus, you want to include as many primary keywords in your headline as possible.

However, keep in mind that you want to make this readable for both Amazon robots and human customers. If the headline isn’t clear, customers won’t waste their time trying to decipher its meaning. Include multiple keywords but in a logical, useful format. Usability is the number one goal with optimization.

Your product title can be up to 250 characters. Use as much of this space as you can to get the full benefits of optimization. Follow Amazon’s title recommendations.

It includes the brand (Home Revolution) as well as the product differentiator (HEPA Filter). However, it focuses on the model numbers that the filter fits.

This headline emphasizes the primary search requirement for customers: Will this filter fit my vacuum?

When customers are searching for a vacuum filter, they care first and foremost about whether or not the filter is the right product for their vacuum. Here, this product title focuses on narrowing in one aspect of search optimization that customers care about.

3. Bullet Points

The bullet points are a quick, skimmable way for your customers to see the major features and benefits of your product.

You have five bullet points where you can include important information and unique characteristics of the product. Add in as many keywords as possible without repeating. You have 1000 characters. Use all of the space, but keep it short, concise, and readable.

When trying to pull out the five most important bullet points to include, consider the most important selling points to your customer. What do they want to know about your product? What is most important to them? What pain points does your product solve for them?

Tip: Always include your guarantees or warranties in the bullet points. This is a great way to encourage your customers to buy, while also optimizing on Amazon’s search algorithm.

We recommend the five foundations for your bullet points look something like this:

When searching for a vacuum filter, customers first and foremost want to make sure the filter will work with the vacuum they have. This first bullet point instantly tells them whether or not the filter will fit their vacuum’s make and model. It also gives the ID number for a comparable Shark product. This instills faith with the customer and encourages them to compare the benefits of the HomeRevolution filter with the traditional Shark filter.

What are the care instructions or warranty/guarantee information?

Replace with confidence: We back all of our USA engineered products with a 100% satisfaction guarantee

Guarantees prove to your customer that you believe in your product. It also makes them feel more comfortable, knowing that they will be able to return the product if they’re not satisfied. This creates a strong layer of customer service before the individual has even purchased the product. Plus, Amazon’s algorithm likely rewards the word “guarantee.”

What are the important controls and settings?

Breathe easy: Washable, reusable, genuine HEPA filter removes allergens, impurities, and odors from the air and refreshes your home

This is chock full of relevant keywords like “washable,” “reusable,” and “HEPA.” It gives a thorough description with descriptive words to help the customer see how the product will fit in with their lifestyle.

What differentiates your brand or product?

The Home Revolution mantra: Premium quality replacement products at a low price

This bullet point focuses on what makes the brand unique. You can buy other filters from other companies—but here’s why you should buy from us. This also includes additional keywords that Amazon’s algorithm rewards, like “premium” and “low price.

5. What comes in the box?

What you get: 1 HEPA filter.

This tells the customer exactly what they’re getting while reiterating the key feature of the product (here, the differentiator is HEPA).

4. Product Descriptions

The product descriptions are a detailed version of the bullet points, taking a deeper dive into the explanation of the product. Within these 2000 characters, the description portion is an ideal opportunity to add in a number of strong keywords without coming off as “spammy.” But remember—don’t keyword stuff. Use keywords appropriately and naturally.

In the descriptions, be sure to address the customers’ main pain points and potential concerns. Discuss the product at length, focusing on those features that matter most to the customer.

Keep sentences short and sweet. Make the language relatable. Talk in your brand voice. Tell a story about your product.

“Home Revolution provides the same high-quality filter for your Shark Navigator Lift Away Vacuum Cleaner without all the frill to pass the savings on to you! Home Revolution protects your precious air from dust and allergens so you can breathe clean, fresh air every day. This aftermarket replacement HEPA filter was made to fit Shark Navigator Lift-Away models NV350, NV351, NV352, NV355, NV356, NV356E, NV357. Home Revolution carefully crafted this filter to fit Shark Part # XHF350.

Breathe fresh air thanks to this Shark replacement filter by Home Revolution.”

This description tells a story about breathing fresh, clean air. It emphasizes the air quality of the consumer’s home. You can imagine using this product in your own home to remove harmful dust and allergens. Notice keywords like “high-quality,” “savings,” “dust,” “allergens, “breathe, “fresh air,” and “HEPA filter.”

You’ll also see a description about the Home Revolution brand. This is critical as our brand is our key differentiator from our competitors. We sell similar filters as our competition—but the Home Revolution focus on quality, cost-savings, and eco-friendliness is our definer.

“Home Revolution is a cutting edge, quality home and lifestyle products and replacements brand sold exclusively through e-commerce sellers and national retailers. This is a replacement product carefully crafted by Home Revolution. Home Revolution filters detoxify the air and exhilarate the home and mind.

With three main categories:

Breathe

Clean

Drink

Home Revolution's product line includes replacements for your home.”

5. Images

Your images are what sell your product—and you can optimize these as well. You can have up to 9 photos to show off a variety of images.

Keep in mind that the primary photo is what shows up in search results, and it’s your first impression on a consumer. It should have an all-white background, with the product taking up at least 80% of the frame. This focuses on your product and helps your customer see exactly what your listing is about.

Image optimization tips:

Use professional, high-quality photographs.

Images should be a minimum of 1000px wide and 500px tall. We recommend 2000px on the longest side. This ensures clear zooming of your product.

Upload in a JPEG (.jpeg), TIFF (.tiff), or GIF (.gif) format.

Include as many images as possible.

Do not include watermarks or logos on your images, especially the primary photo.

Supplemental images should show various angles of your product and focus on key features.

Utilize lifestyle shots to show your product in action.

Include an image that shows the size and scale of your product.

If you offer specialty packaging, include an image with this package design.

Don’t show props not included in the package unless it’s clear to the viewer that the prop is not sold.

Use videos, enhanced images, and 3D renderings.

Tag images with alt and title tags optimized for main keywords.

6. Pricing, FBA, Reviews

Other optimization factors include pricing, Prime-eligibility, and reviews.

Your price has an impact on how well you rank. This doesn’t necessarily mean the lowest price ranks the highest. The most competitive price point in conjunction with an optimized product listing will gain the greatest visibility in search results.

Amazon rewards Prime-eligible sellers and listings first and foremost. If you are an FBA seller (Fulfilled by Amazon), you are automatically Prime eligible. Prime optimizes for Amazon’s algorithm while also attracts Prime customers.

Reviews are also critical for optimization. Sellers with a high volume of 4 or 5-star reviews will be pushed to the top of search results over those with lower rankings. This means you need quantity, quality reviews. You can gather these through automated email campaigns that encourage and remind your customers to review. You should also focus on customer service with those who leave negative reviews in order to improve their experience and your future rankings.

7. Enhanced Brand Content/ A+ Content

Enhanced Brand Content (EBC) or A+ Content gives you more real estate for optimization. You have more room to include keywords and product features than typical listings.

EBC is for Amazon Brand Registry owners who want to personalize their Amazon storefront. This allows you to have higher quality images, videos, comparison charts, brand descriptions, and detailed product information. The more detailed and extensive your storefront, the more optimized your listing will be.

The Bottom Line

Optimizing your product listing is essential to gain visibility on Amazon’s search results. Optimization also increases your relevance, which encourages users to click through to your listing. On your listing, optimization helps engage and convert customers at a higher rate.

Bonus: Don’t forget to test and experiment with your optimization. Test multiple keywords a variety of places—frontend and backend. Try different images and descriptions. This can help you determine which factors are optimizing and which are hurting your listing.

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